This invention relates to a latch needle for loop-forming textile machines and is of the type which has a needle shank and a needle latch pivotally supported in a sawslot of the needle shank by means of a transversely extending rivet. The needle latch has at one end a latch spoon (noucat) which, in the closed position of the latch, cooperates with the needle head. The latch blade is provided with a rivet-receiving bore and has a terminal portion which extends from the zone of the rivet-receiving bore to that end of the needle latch which is opposite from the latch spoon. The latch needle further has an elongated spring element which, in the zone of one of its ends, is anchored in the needle shank and projects into the sawslot with its other, free end. The spring element, at least in the closed position of the needle latch, extends over a support surface provided on the terminal portion of the latch blade. The needle latch is elastically urged into a partially open, intermediate position by means of the spring element.
A latch needle of the above-outlined type is disclosed in German Patent No. 3,702,019. The partially open intermediate position of the needle latch ensures during the casting-on of the knitting, that is, at the beginning of the knitting process or upon adding loops, an unimpeded insertion of the yarn into the needle head as it is explained in detail in the above-identified German patent. The needle latch is pivotally supported on the rivet which is accommodated in the rivet-receiving bore of the latch and which is formed by a cylindrical pin rotationally immobilized in corresponding bores provided in the needle shank cheeks laterally bounding the sawslot or is constituted by essentially cylindrical embossments provided in the needle shank cheeks and projecting into the rivet-receiving bore. To obtain a satisfactory operation of the needle latch, it has to be ensured that the end of the spring element securely cooperates with the support surface at the end portion of the needle latch. Since for ensuring an easy motion of the needle latch, between the rivet and the rivet-receiving (bearing) bore a certain bearing play is required, the latch blade has to be laterally guided in the sawslot with relative accuracy. In needles of small size which correspondingly have a small needle latch, the support surface for the end of the spring element is small as well, because it has to be ensured in any event that the rivet-receiving bore is surrounded on all sides by a sufficiently thick bearing shell. The exact positioning of the end of the spring element on such a small support surface of the needle latch is occasionally involved with difficulties in the mass manufacture and, as a result, the spring element with its end may miss the support surface. Such occurrences may lead to defects in the knitting and immediately render the latch needle useless.